Conventionally, access mats are made from wooden timbers arranged in a plurality of layers where the timbers of each layer are arranged parallel to one another and those of adjacent layers are arranged in crisscrossing fashion. The timbers of all layers are fastened together in a thickness direction of the mat.
It is often desirable to form an interconnected series of such mats arranged end-to-end. Typically, these mats are interconnected by protruding integral timbers of one mat of an adjacent pair, formed by offsetting select timbers of one of the mat layers in a longitudinal direction of the timbers, which are received in corresponding receptacles of another one of the adjacent pair of mats formed at recessed ends of the selected offset timbers which are inwardly spaced from a periphery of the mat.